Show Us Your Racks

Gilly said:
You know its serious when the health and safety briefing tells you how many seconds you have to get out once the fire klaxon sounds, before all oxygen is removed from the room and replaced by non flammable gas :/
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Is it still Halon these days?

I used to work as a mainframe operator many moons a go. IBM and Hitachi water cooled mainframes and the old blue IBM reel to reel tape drives etc..you get the picture. Well one weekend some muppet was working on one of the Halon cylinders and managed to set the whole lot off...
2 people were taken to hospital with deeps cuts from flying ceiling tiles, one was knocked out by something but ok and another three people, me included, ended up outside throwing our guts up for 30 minutes.

I wont bother telling you about the time a 'waste' pipe burst under the raised floor in the 'computer room' and yours truly had to hold it all back with his bare hands..

Fun times indeed
 
I thought it was Argon but Halon rings a bell. I think it could be an amalgamation of the two, been a couple of years since the briefing :o

I just know to run fast :D

[edit]This is a pic of the datacentre I was talking about before any servers went in. This is one of four tech halls on site, the boardroom is the bit in the roof that juts out. This is tech hall 1 and it continues to stretch away on the right, and the glass wall bordering the next tech hall along can be seen on the left :)

sdcuo6.jpg


Each line on the floor is one rack wide, giving something like 40 rows, and I think it is longer than it is wide, so there's theoretically space for a couple of thousand racks. It isn't all used though, there's cages and there's huge tape stores and workstations dotted around.

That's just one tech hall on site though :)

I nabbed the pic off the site of the people that built the site, so it shouldn't be an issue.
 
fantastic design idea for the boardroom there, must have a nice view....though it does look a bit like a command post where the boss can overlook his minions at work :p

just out of curiosity gilly, how long do you actually get to get out before the rooms oxygen is removed?
 
Gilly said:
I thought it was Argon but Halon rings a bell. I think it could be an amalgamation of the two, been a couple of years since the briefing :o

I just know to run fast :D

[edit]This is a pic of the datacentre I was talking about before any servers went in. This is one of four tech halls on site, the boardroom is the bit in the roof that juts out. This is tech hall 1 and it continues to stretch away on the right, and the glass wall bordering the next tech hall along can be seen on the left :)

sdcuo6.jpg


Each line on the floor is one rack wide, giving something like 40 rows, and I think it is longer than it is wide, so there's theoretically space for a couple of thousand racks. It isn't all used though, there's cages and there's huge tape stores and workstations dotted around.

That's just one tech hall on site though :)

I nabbed the pic off the site of the people that built the site, so it shouldn't be an issue.
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:eek:

Would that all be for company user or is that used for other people!?


I bet that would be noisy :p
 
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mrbios said:
fantastic design idea for the boardroom there, must have a nice view....though it does look a bit like a command post where the boss can overlook his minions at work :p

just out of curiosity gilly, how long do you actually get to get out before the rooms oxygen is removed?
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In fairness there's no-one based in the tech halls. Work goes on there but the bosses wouldn't know what you were up to :p

I think it was 60 seconds.

Baz said:
:eek:

Would that all be for company user or is that used for other people!?


I bet that would be noisy :p
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There's some corporate use but AFAIK it is mostly outsourced stuff.
Von Luck said:
Gilly - I drive past that datacentre a fair bit (assuming it's Fujitsu's SDC in Lakeside), plus that's where a lot of the IT supporting another gov dept linked to us is based.
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Sounds like you're in a similar area to me :) (department wise, not geographically)
 
Gilly said:
I thought it was Argon but Halon rings a bell. I think it could be an amalgamation of the two, been a couple of years since the briefing :o

I just know to run fast :D

[edit]This is a pic of the datacentre I was talking about before any servers went in. This is one of four tech halls on site, the boardroom is the bit in the roof that juts out. This is tech hall 1 and it continues to stretch away on the right, and the glass wall bordering the next tech hall along can be seen on the left :)



Each line on the floor is one rack wide, giving something like 40 rows, and I think it is longer than it is wide, so there's theoretically space for a couple of thousand racks. It isn't all used though, there's cages and there's huge tape stores and workstations dotted around.

That's just one tech hall on site though :)

I nabbed the pic off the site of the people that built the site, so it shouldn't be an issue.
Click to expand...

That's almost as pretty as:



:D

I'll post some pictures of the only 'datacenter' at sea shortly :)
 
mrbios said:
just out of curiosity gilly, how long do you actually get to get out before the rooms oxygen is removed?
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Halon as a fire protection system was banned in the UK (Europe?) a few years back, it's illegal to top up a halon system after 2003 I think and I think they all should have been dismantled now.

There are alternatives such as argon/argonite and the newer favorite FM200.
These are meant to be 'safer' than halon as a lower concentration is needed in the air for a fire to be stopped, so you are still able to breathe even if it's gone off. Wouldn't be too nice through :P / can still pass out i think.. but not die.

******** ****'s you up :P

//TrX
 
TrX said:
Halon as a fire protection system was banned in the UK (Europe?) a few years back, it's illegal to top up a halon system after 2003 I think and I think they all should have been dismantled now.

There are alternatives such as argon/argonite and the newer favorite FM200.
These are meant to be 'safer' than halon as a lower concentration is needed in the air for a fire to be stopped, so you are still able to breathe even if it's gone off. Wouldn't be too nice through :P / can still pass out i think.. but not die.

******** ****'s you up :P

//TrX
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Place i'm at uses CO2 to purge the air out, but thats in some of the older rooms. Dunno if its still operational.
 
Oh and i can't take pics of our data centers. Its a pain in the arse just to get in one of the bloody things, and you aren't supposed to be taking snaps while in there.

Security isn't as mental as some as the places mentioned previously, but they are watching your every move. Twice already i've had an email waiting for me in my inbox in the morning from some nameless security drone telling me i've left my lights on down in the carpark.
 
Stolly said:
Oh and i can't take pics of our data centers. Its a pain in the arse just to get in one of the bloody things, and you aren't supposed to be taking snaps while in there.

Security isn't as mental as some as the places mentioned previously, but they are watching your every move. Twice already i've had an email waiting for me in my inbox in the morning from some nameless security drone telling me i've left my lights on down in the carpark.
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God thats not very nice of him!!1 Telling you that you left your lights on!!

Next time he wil let it go flat, at least you wont get an e-mail then.
 
teaboy5 said:
God thats not very nice of him!!1 Telling you that you left your lights on!!

Next time he wil let it go flat, at least you wont get an e-mail then.
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Way to miss the point hotshot, it was more to do with security being in the ball than leaving some lights on.
 
Gilly said:
I thought it was Argon but Halon rings a bell. I think it could be an amalgamation of the two, been a couple of years since the briefing :o

I just know to run fast :D

[edit]This is a pic of the datacentre I was talking about before any servers went in. This is one of four tech halls on site, the boardroom is the bit in the roof that juts out. This is tech hall 1 and it continues to stretch away on the right, and the glass wall bordering the next tech hall along can be seen on the left :)

sdcuo6.jpg


Each line on the floor is one rack wide, giving something like 40 rows, and I think it is longer than it is wide, so there's theoretically space for a couple of thousand racks. It isn't all used though, there's cages and there's huge tape stores and workstations dotted around.

That's just one tech hall on site though :)

I nabbed the pic off the site of the people that built the site, so it shouldn't be an issue.
Click to expand...

Gilly - You work for them too?

I am a Data Centre Devolper for them and have just finished an efficiency audit of the above Data Centre. Good to see there are no company names in the photo or you would be in trouble! It is very impressive and now very full too. Have you seen the new 2 we have been / are building? They're going to be even more impressive - true tier 4s.
 
Oh and btw, it's Argon. Doesn't remove all oxygen in the room - you would be safe. They also mix it with Nitrogen to make you hyper-ventilate to ensure you're getting enough oxygen.
 
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